Your Life

Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009

Le Pho Restaurant is a hidden treasure in Biloxi

BILOXI — For many years there was a small Vietnamese grocery store on the corner of Oak Street and Howard Avenue in Biloxi called Hong Kong Market.

The Le family ably ran it until recently when they moved to a much larger location on Division Street. The new store, Le Grocery, not only supplies every conceivable Asian fruit and vegetable, but they also just opened an Asian Restaurant under the same roof.

In it you will find Chinese crispy pork, a delicacy known around the world, and generally found in this country only in large cities with sizeable Chinese populations.

This is not diet food, but it is as intensely flavored as pork can be, crunchy and crispy on the skin side and melt-in-your-mouth tender on the other. Buy a pound of crispy pork, watch the attendant dice it with a large meat cleaver, and put it in a carry-out box. If you can make it home without eating half of it you have the self-control of a saint.

You will also find fabulous Chinese barbecue pork made from pork shoulder. This is barbecue like none you have ever had; succulent, sweet and tender. It has a distinctive red color and is blackened on the tips from roasting.

It is sliced thin with a great Asian-style dipping sauce. Whole roasted ducks, chickens and quail are available as are Vietnamese soups and stews.

Max Le, the owner, is not only an experienced merchant, but he has many years experience as a restaurant owner as well.

The secret of his new endeavor is Young Ngyen, a master roaster in the Chinese style who has studied his trade in New York City, Boston and Atlanta. He is extraordinarily talented in a style of cooking not often found in this part of the world.